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Underwear – Preschool Storytime

I noticed lately that there were a lot of fun books about underwear, and figured why not share some of them in storytime? I was hesitant about the topic at first, and wondered if people would find it inappropriate. But, I felt better when I saw that other storytime bloggers had paved the way. Just to be on the safe side, I checked with my supervisor before presenting it, just to make sure she would have my back in case of complaints. Thankfully, my community is fairly open and I don’t think anyone had a problem with it (at least that they let me know).

BOOK:
One Big Pair of Underwear by Laura Gehl, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld

MOVEMENT: Now You’re Getting Dressed
(to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”)

First put on your underwear, underwear, underwear. (pretend to put on underwear)
First put on your underwear. Now you’re getting dressed.
Stick your arms up in your shirt, in your shirt, in your shirt.
Stick your arms up in your shirt. Now you’re getting dressed.
Pull your pants up to your waist, to your waist, to your waist.
Pull your pants up to your waist. Now you’re getting dressed.
Wiggle your toes down in your socks, in your socks, in your socks.
Wiggle your toes down in your socks. Now you’re getting dressed.
Slip your shoes on, tie them tight, tie them tight, tie them tight.
Slip your shoes on, tie them tight. Now you’re getting dressed
Now you can go out and play, out and play, out and play.
Now you can go out and play, You got yourself all dressed.
YES!

FLANNELBOARD:

To make the pieces for this flannelboard, I just blew up the Monday page from the book on the copy machine and used that as my template for the bear and for his underwear. I told the story by putting the (naked) bear up on the flannelboard, then recited the words from the book. At the correct time, I put the underwear on the bear. When it was time for bear to wear a new pair of undies, I moved the old one to the bottom of the board (you can kind of see this in the second picture.) Then I brought out the days of the week and we talked about what color underwear Bear wore each day (notice the color of the text of the days matches the color of bear’s pants).

MOVEMENT: Head, Shoulders Knees and Underwear
I sung this to the traditional tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, but just substituted the word “underwear” for “toes” or “nose”. Thanks to Miss Sarah’s Storytime for this great idea! It was a hit.

MOVEMENT: “Shake My Sillies Out” by Raffi from A Young Children’s Concert with Raffi

VIDEO:“Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed” from The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog Snowy Day… and more stories by Mo Willems based on the book by Mo Willems

MOVEMENT: Storytime’s Over*

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL IDEAS:

Book: Pants by Giles Andreae, illustrated by Nick Sharratt
Book: Veggies with Wedgies by Todd H. Doodler (is he the underwear laureate of our time?)
Book: I’m Not a Pig in Underpants by Elwood H. Smith
Book: What Color is Your Underwear? by Sam Lloyd (I haven’t read this one yet, because we don’t have it in our system, but this flannelboard that Miss Sarah made is amazing!)
Book: Pirates Love Underpants (or Aliens… or Dinosaurs…) by Claire Freedman & Ben Cort

THOUGHTS ON THIS STORYTIME:A fun storytime, but I didn’t get quite as many giggles as I thought I might have. I perhaps should have chosen some younger stories. The idea of a zoo where animals wear underwear did seem pretty funny to them though. And I really liked reading aloud One Big Pair… it has such a nice rhythm to it. “Naked Mole Rat” might have been a bit of a stretch for the video, but there aren’t a lot of good ones that I could find about underpants. Plus, the Naked Mole Rat is wearing undies on the title page, and at the end the advertisement mentions underpants. Good enough for me. I need to remember to bring my bottle of water and keep it with me — my throat was getting kind of rough.